Global Ecology and Conservation

Autor: Shant Raj Jnawali, Madhuri Karki Thapa, Pramod Neupane, Babu Ram Lamichhane, Shashank Poudel, Sabita Malla, Kanchan Thapa, Gokarna Jung Thapa, Naresh Subedi, Maheshwar Dhakal, Samundra Ambuhang Subba, Marcella J. Kelly, Krishna Prasad Acharya, Shiv Raj Bhatta
Přispěvatelé: Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Global Ecology and Conservation, Vol 25, Iss, Pp e01412-(2021)
ISSN: 2351-9894
Popis: Better conservation planning requires updated information about leopard distribution to prioritize and allocate limited resources available. The long-term persistence of leopards and sympatric tigers can be compromised by linear infrastructure development such as roads that fragment habitat. We used detection and non-detection data collected along walking search paths (similar to 4140 km) in 96 grid cells (each cell 15 km by 15 km) spread across potential habitat (similar to 13,845 km(2)) in the Terai Arc Landscape, Nepal. Multi-season occupancy models allowed us to make both spatial and temporal inferences between two surveys in 2009 and 2013, based on ecologically relevant covariates recorded in the field or remotely sensed. Additionally, we used 2013 data to make inferences on co-occurrence between tigers and leopards at the landscape level. We found the additive model containing deforestation and district roads negatively influenced leopard detection across the landscape. Although weak, we found anthropogenic factors such as extent of deforestation (decrease in forest cover) negatively affected leopard occupancy. Road abundance, especially for the east-west highway and district roads, also negatively (but weakly) influenced leopard occupancy. We found substantially lower occupancy in the year 2013 (0.59 (SE 0.06)) than in 2009 (0.86 (SE 0.04)). Tigers and leopards co-occurred across the landscape based on the species interaction factor (SIF) estimated at 1.47 (0.13) but the amount of available habitat and the prey index mediated co-occurrence. The SIF decreased as habitat availability increased, reaching independence at large habitat patches, but leopard occupancy declined in sites with tigers, primarily in large patches. The prey index was substantially lower outside of protected areas and leopards and tigers co-occurred more strongly in small patches and at low prey indices, indicating potential attraction to the same areas when prey is scarce. Mitigation measures should focus on preventing loss of critical leopard, tiger, and prey habitat through appropriate wildlife-friendly underpasses and avoiding such habitat when building infrastructure. Leopard conservation has received lower priority than tigers, but our metrics show a large decline in leopard occupancy, thus conservation planning to reverse this decline should focus on measures to facilitate human-leopard coexistence to ensure leopard persistence across the landscape. WWF Network (UK, US and International); US Fish and Wildlife ServiceUS Fish & Wildlife Service; USAID's Hariyo Ban Program through WWF Nepal; Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation; Save the Tiger Fund Published version This work was funded as a part of support received as part of tiger monitoring project from WWF Network (UK, US and International), US Fish and Wildlife Service, USAID's Hariyo Ban Program through WWF Nepal, The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, and Save the Tiger Fund. Virginia Tech for its support to KT during the analysis and manuscript development.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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